Circuit Cycliste Sarthe - Race Overview

ORICA-GreenEDGE lined up for Circuit Cycliste Sarthe with defending champion Luke Dubridge amongst their six ride squad. A surprise winner at the French stage race in his neo-pro season, Durbridge hoped to repeat the feat as a race favourite with the support of his teammates.

The Australian outfit was dealt a major blow on stage one when four riders were involved in a late race crash. Durbridge, Michael Hepburn and Aidis Kruopis escaped unscathed. Sam Bewley bore the brunt of the pile-up and was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken collarbone.

Day two saw Durbridge move into yellow leader’s jersey after his teammates helped him conserve during the morning road stage. As fresh as he possibly could be with a road stage in his legs, Durbridge won the stage three time trial to take over the race lead.

Despite their best efforts, ORICA-GreenEDGE lost the jersey on stage four. It wasn’t all bad news for Durbridge who got the call up to race Paris-Roubaix and withdrew ahead of stage five.

Cameron Meyer animated the final day of racing, forcing a four-rider move clear and staying away until the final circuits. He was surprised to learn that his efforts in the break earned him the mountains classification jersey.

“The team had a successful week with a stage win, four in the top ten in the time trial, the yellow jersey for one day and winning the KOM jersey. We were one man down after we lost Sam, but we made quite an impact. We all got a lot out of this week of racing.” – Cam Meyer